Reviews

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

Deadly Alliance offers an acceptable selection of modes, but outside of Versus it will be Arcade and Konquest that get the most play. Arcade is a standard progression through a variety of fighters, culminating in the mini-boss Moloch and then battles against Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. Having played home versions of MK in the past, I instinctively turned the difficulty all the way down to the easiest setting before trying Arcade. It's a good thing I did, as Moloch upholds the MK tradition of stupid-cheap and annoying sub-bosses. The only way to win against him is to find some cheap move or glitch to exploit, making Moloch an unwelcome addition to the single-player tournament. Once you eke past him, the last two bosses seem easy in comparison. Arcade also features "Test Your Might" bonus stages, ala the original MK. These are not to be confused with "Test Your Sight" challenges, where you need to play the classic "moving cup" game. This is one example of the game's attempts at humor and self-parody. These mostly work, and add a nice bit of levity to the proceedings.

Konquest is pitched as the game's answer to Soul Calibur's mission mode, but it's not as gripping as I'd hoped. It features a total of 218 missions to conquer, but each character can only play ten or so. More importantly, there is little variation between each character's Konquest outing. This is really just a glorified tutorial mode, teaching you each character's basic moves and combos and then asking you to perform them a few times. After you finish a character or two, it becomes a real test of patience to complete the mode with the other characters.

20 years ago, Sub-Zero lost all feeling in his arms. And he's mad.

The main reason to play Konquest, then, is to earn lots of Kurrency which can be spent unlocking secrets in the game's Krypt mode. The Krypt is filled with no less than 676 "koffins," which can each contain anything from a piece of concept art to a bonus video to a fighting arena to a hidden character. There are six different colors of koins, and Arcade and Konquest modes both tend to give you different types. This is a clever way to get the player playing different modes, but it's still a drag that Konquest is so boring. Still, if unlockable doo-dads are your thing, then Deadly Alliance's extensive arsenal of koffins will make you weep with joy. Or dementia. (In a nice touch, you can also wager your Koins in Versus mode.)

Johnny Cage is Not Afraid to Die

Despite being multiplatform, Deadly Alliance is a fairly good-looking game. The character models are sometimes a little basic, but when the camera's pulled back to normal fighting distance they look good enough. A more serious flaw is that the animations can be somewhat odd-looking, often seeming to fluctuate in speed as they display. Ironically, this actually serves to remind me of the stilted animations of past Mortal Kombats, further enhancing the game's MK feel. The blood effects are very well done, doing a good job of capturing the gratuitousness of the series' old 2D blood effects. However, the best aspect must be the backgrounds. While a few are ho-hum (Moloch's lair is particularly poor), great ones like Shang Tsung's haunted palace and the glistening ice arena provide excellent backdrops for your fighting. The music and sound effects are good too, though I wish Johnny Cage wouldn't say "alley oop!" every other second.

MK:DA joins the meager ranks of fighters that let you beat on blind people.

Since this is one of those games designed with the PS2's lesser capabilities in mind, there aren't many differences between the three versions. Believe it or not, the PS2 and GameCube versions actually have a somewhat sharper appearance than the decidedly interlaced-looking Xbox incarnation. The graphical differences are really minor, though. When choosing a version, it should really come down to which controller you prefer. If you go with Xbox, the standard Xbox controller is tolerable for this game, but I'd highly recommend the Controller S.

MK Redeemed?

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance really surprised me. After the shenanigans of the past seven or so years, I didn't think Midway was capable of creating a solid fighting game. Deadly Alliance has proven me wrong, and I'm glad it has. This is the over-the-top, pick-up-and-play fighter that's we've been missing for so long. It's far less complex than its top-rated contemporaries, but that's part of the fun. You can just sit back, turn your brain off, and beat people to bloody pulps. The fighting is satisfying, the cast is varied, and it's just fun to play. If you're looking for a fun, easy-to-grasp fighter, this is one alliance that's definitely worth joining. •

Btw: If you're wondering about the section headers, they're snippets from 1994's Mortal Kombat: The Album. It's a vintage piece of cheese that no connoisseur of silly music should be without.